Paula Yates

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Paula Elizabeth Yates (24 April 1959^[1]- 17 September 2000) was a British television presenter and writer, best known for her work on two iconic television programmes, The Tube and The Big Breakfast.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Early career 3 Marriage to Geldof 4 Later career 5 Relationship with Michael Hutchence 5.1 Hutchence death 6 Paula's death and Hughie Green's paternity 7 Aftermath of her death 8 Books 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Early life

Born in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, she was brought up in a show business family. Her mother was Elaine Smith, a former showgirl, actress and writer of erotic novels, who used the stage names Helene Thornton and Heller Toren. Until late in her life, Yates believed her father to be Jess Yates, who was known as "the Bishop" and presented the ITV religious programme Stars On Sunday. Yates and Smith were married from 1958 to 1975, though Yates was 16 years older than his wife and their marriage was unconventional. Jess Yates was sacked from his job in 1974 because of scandalous newspaper stories about his private life.

In an unsettled childhood, Paula attended school at Penrhos College, Ysgol Aberconwy. The Yates' ran the Deganwy Castle Hotel for a time, before moving to a large house in Rowen, Conwy. After the break-up of her parents' marriage in 1975, Paula lived mostly with her mother, including periods in Malta and Mallorca where she was a pupil at Bellver British College, before returning to Britain.

[edit] Early career

Paula became an obsessed fan of Boomtown Rats and their lead singer, Bob Geldof. Paula posed naked for Penthouse in 1978, just before she became a music journalist, writing a column called "Natural Blonde" in the Record Mirror. She first came to prominence in the 1980s, as co-presenter (with Jools Holland) of the Channel 4 pop music programme The Tube. She also appeared alongside friend Jennifer Saunders in 1987 for a spoof 'mockumentary' on Bananarama.

[edit] Marriage to Geldof

Yates met Bob Geldof in the early days of the Boomtown Rats. They got together as a couple in 1976 when she travelled by aeroplane to Paris, to surprise him while the band was playing there. Their first daughter, Fifi Trixibelle, was born on 31 March 1983.^[2] After 10 years together, they married on 31 August 1986 in Las Vegas, with Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran acting as Geldof's best man. The couple then had two more daughters, Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof on 16 March 1989,^[3] and Pixie Geldof on 17 September 1990.^[4] Pixie is said to be named after a celebrity daughter character from the cartoon Celeb in the satirical magazine Private Eye, itself a lampoon of the unusual names the Geldofs' gave to their first children.

[edit] Later career

After the birth of her daughters, Yates wrote two books on motherhood.

In 1982 Paula released a cover version of the Nancy Sinatra hit single "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".^[5]

Yates continued with her rock journalism, in addition to being presenter of cutting-edge music show The Tube. She became most notorious for her "on the bed" interviews on the show The Big Breakfast, produced by Geldof. On 27 October 1995 Yates appeared on the quiz programme Have I Got News For You and repeatedly clashed with Ian Hislop. Yates referred to Hislop as being "the sperm of the devil".

[edit] Relationship with Michael Hutchence

Yates interviewed the INXS singer Michael Hutchence in her Big Breakfast boudoir, and fell in love with him. In 1995, Yates left Geldof for Hutchence. Geldof and Yates divorced in May 1996. Two months later Yates' daughter with Hutchence, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence (known as Tiger) was born on 22 July 1996.^[6][7]

[edit] Hutchence death

On November 22, 1997, Hutchence was found hanged in a hotel room in Sydney. Yates became distraught, refusing to accept the coroner's verdict of suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric treatment. Yates never entirely recovered from losing him, and even attempted suicide. In June 1998, Bob Geldof won full custody of the couple's three daughters. ^[8] Meanwhile, she battled Hutchence's mother Patricia Glassop and her daughter Tina for custody of Tiger Lily.^{[citation needed]}

Yates' dispute with the Hutchence family over Michael's estate saw her struggling to bring up her daughter.^[9] While battling grief and problems with addiction, she was also in an extremely difficult financial situation. Yates resorted to selling her jewellery in order to pay bills, including the three amethyst rings Geldof gave her after the birth of each of their daughters. She downsized to living in a small mews house in the years prior to her death, but also purchased a second home in Hastings.

[edit] Paula's death and Hughie Green's paternity

While fighting for custody of Tiger, it was reported in the media that Jess Yates had not been Paula's natural father. A paternity test proved that the late quiz show host Hughie Green, who had died only six months before Hutchence, had in fact been her natural father. Three years after this announcement, Yates was found dead at her home in London, at the age of 41, of an accidental heroin overdose, leaving her youngest child an orphan. The coroner ruled that it was not a suicide, but a result of "foolish and incautious" behaviour.^[10][11]

[edit] Aftermath of her death

Soon after Paula's death her ex-husband Bob Geldof assumed a foster custody of Tiger Lily with the willing consent of Hutchence's parents, so that she could be raised with her three older half sisters Fifi, Peaches and Pixie. In 2007 Geldof further applied to a British court for and was granted formal adoption of Tiger Lily and a change of her surname to Geldof, despite vocal opposition from Hutchence's mother and sister.^[12]

Several people have written books claiming to know the truth about Paula Yates, including her estranged mother Helene Thornton, half-brother Christopher Green and one-time manager and friend Gerry Agar. On 2 April 2008 a TV drama about Hughie Green's life, Hughie Green: Most Sincerely, was broadcast on BBC Four. It focused, in its later stages, on Green's apparent fixation with Yates, whom he knew to be his daughter, once she had become a television star.

In his memoir Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins (2006), actor Rupert Everett included the revelation that he conducted a six-year affair with Yates.

[edit] Books

Paula Yates was the author of several books, including:

• Rock Stars in Their Underpants (1980)
• A Tail of Two Kitties (1983)
• Blondes (1983)
• Sex With Paula Yates (1986)
• The Fun Starts Here (1990)
• The Fun Don't Stop: Loads of Rip-roaring Activities for You and Your Toddler (1991)
• And the Fun Goes On: A Practical Guide to Playing and Learning with Your Pre-school Child (1991)
• Village People (1993)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Paula Yates at h2g2
• Paula Yates at the Internet Movie Database